> OpenAI’s Head of Data Centers and Stargate Project Has Resigned

A key executive overseeing OpenAI’s data-center build-out, Chris Malone, left the company last week, according to people familiar with the matter, joining a wave of leadership departures ahead of a planned public offering. 

Malone joined OpenAI as head of data centers in March 2025, shortly after the company announced Stargate, an ambitious effort with Oracle and SoftBank to build data centers to meet its rapidly growing computing needs.

The Stargate effort got off to a rocky start, and OpenAI shifted toward signing deals with cloud providers rather than developing facilities itself. OpenAI is now reviving some of its internal data-center efforts through projects in which it leases entire facilities, rather than simply renting chips from cloud providers. But other leaders are heading that effort, not Malone, some of the people said.

His departure comes amid a broader exodus at the firm, which is working toward an IPO that is expected in 2027 and racing to catch up to rival Anthropic in sales to business customers. In recent weeks, Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser, Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap, and Fidji Simo, who served as second-in-command to Chief Executive Sam Altman, have all left.

Before joining OpenAI, Malone was a distinguished engineer at Meta, where he led the firm’s data-center strategy. Prior to that, he was a distinguished engineer and senior director at Google focused on data-center technology.

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